Chapter 28 Should We Move There?
"...Brother, when did you come?"
Sang Xinghao tilted his head and said, "I came here with my mother."
Didn't that mean he saw her crying? Xie Qiujin's face flushed, and she was too embarrassed to look up.
Sang Yu couldn't help but twitch the corners of her mouth. The child just stood aside and watched them hugging each other and crying.
For a moment, she didn't know whether to praise him for being well-behaved or scold him for being stupid. Could it be that the high fever had damaged his brain?
"Ahem, what did you do at home today? I found a nice place and I'll take you there tomorrow, okay?"
She quickly changed the subject and said that she had planned to take Sang Xinghao to the canyon a long time ago.
They could still find something to do every day, but he was a seven-year-old child who could not carry anything on his shoulders or with his hands, so he had nothing to do every day.
He was so bored that he ran to the side to watch the ants moving. If Xie Qiujin hadn't been watching closely, he might have gone into the mountains at any time.
"Play?" As soon as he heard this word, Sang Xinghao's eyes lit up and he kept asking Sang Yu questions.
"Where are we going? Is there anything fun to do? Can we go today?"
Sang Yu answered his questions perfunctorily while walking into the shed. After greeting old lady Shi who was sitting inside weaving cattail bags with cattail leaves, she took out the salt jar from the basket.
Last night when she was weaving baskets, the old lady and Xie Qiujin sat beside her and watched and learned, thinking of weaving some baskets and cattail bags to sell for some money to supplement the family income.
If they had cloth and needles and thread, they could also do some embroidery work to earn money, but they haven't figured out the situation here yet, so they can't get any work even if they want to.
Unexpectedly, in less than half a day, the basket woven by the old lady had already taken shape, and was much more delicate than the one Sang Yu had hurriedly woven last night.
When Sang Yu bought salt, he noticed that the other party sold salt varieties.
It goes without saying that loose salt is the currency, and bitter salt, as the name suggests, tastes very bitter and is slightly cheaper than normal salt.
Thanks to the special research on the types of salt when making bacon in the past, Sang Yu knew that these bitter salts were actually sea salts, which were made by steaming or drying seawater.
However, because it contains too many impurities, it tastes very bitter and is bad for your health if consumed for a long time.
It is also easy to solve the problem. Just boil it together with charcoal or wood ash.
They had accumulated a lot of wood ash in the past two days. Xie Qiujin originally wanted to clean it up but was stopped by her. Now it comes in handy.
Put the clay pot that is essential for every meal on the fire, pour a whole can of salt into the pot, and add some water that has been allowed to settle.
Sang Yu began to stir constantly. She wanted to mix the salt and water together first, and then refine it again.
Xie Qiujin frowned as she watched her actions. Why did she cook all the salt she just bought in one pot? It would be choking.
She knew that her daughter was always cautious and would never do this for no reason. Even though she was full of doubts, she did not say anything to stop her.
Half a pot of water and large particles of bitter salt gradually mixed together under Sang Yu's constant stirring, and were boiled over high heat.
Even though the water in the pot had already boiled, Sang Yu did not stop stirring. She picked up a handful of wood ash that she had prepared in advance and slowly sprinkled it into the pot.
"Hey..." This time Xie Qiujin couldn't help it and wanted to speak out to stop him.
Hearing her voice, Sang Yu kept moving his hands and looked up and smiled at her.
"Mom, the salt I bought is different from the one we used to eat. It needs to be boiled with wood ash before it can be eaten."
In the past, the Sang family ate only top-quality fine salt, which was carefully selected and dried in salt ponds. It was very different from the salt they eat now.
Even loose salt that costs a penny more is probably only slightly better tasting than bitter salt and still contains a lot of impurities.
"Do I have to buy salt and cook it myself?" Xie Qiujin's face was full of confusion.
Sang Yu patiently explained to her, "Yes, this is called bitter salt, extracted from the sea. It tastes even more bitter than dandelion leaves, and eating it for a long time can easily make you sick."
"But after re-boiling it with wood ash, it will taste much better and won't make you sick."
As he spoke, most of the water in the pot had disappeared, and white crystals began to appear at the bottom of the pot.
Sang Yu waited for a while longer, and only stopped stirring when he saw that the water in the pot had almost evaporated. He took the clay pot off the fire and put it aside.
"Grandma, Mother, I saw a place over there today..."
Sang Yu told them about the village in the canyon she had seen, and then she asked, "Should we move there?"
Although this place is nice, it is too remote and close to the mountain. There might be a mudslide or miasma one day.
"If we move there, where will we live?" Xie Qiujin grasped the key point very accurately.
At least they now have a shed to shelter from the wind and rain. If they move to the canyon, they may lose even the shed and have to rebuild everything bit by bit.
"The shed is not a problem. If we really want to move there, we can cut some bamboo from the bamboo forest and rebuild it."
Sang Yu had long been dissatisfied with the shed in front of him because the four corners were uneven. If possible, it would be best to tear it down and rebuild it.
Xie Qiujin is not someone who can make decisions. When Sang Yongjing was around, she always listened to him unconditionally.
Now that he was not there, she looked at Mrs. Shi and asked respectfully, "Mother, what do you think?"
Old Mrs. Shi has very dexterous hands. When Sang Yu just came back, she had only woven one-third of the cattail bag in her hands, but now she has started to finish.
Hearing Xie Qiujin's question, she smiled and shook her head: "I'm an old man and I don't know how long I can live. It's better for you to make the decision."
When she was in the Sang Mansion, Xie Qiujin was quite afraid of her mother-in-law, as her personality was not really kind.
Perhaps it was the experience of walking between life and death on the road to exile that changed her personality. Now she is amiable and smiles at everyone she sees.
Otherwise, she would never dare to ask the other party's opinion rashly.
"Then we should wait for your father to come back and discuss it as a family." Xie Qiujin finally made the decision. Sang Yongjing still had to make the decision on major matters.
After lunch, Sang Yu yawned and wanted to take a nap.
But look at Xie Qiujin who is weaving a small basket on the left, and look at Old Lady Shi who is weaving a cattail bag on the right. Even Sang Xinghao is using cattail leaves to make toys for himself.
She really couldn't say it, so she could only yawn while weaving the cattail bag.
After an afternoon of work, the re-boiled salt was completely dry and was put back into the salt jar by Sang Yu. It was a little less than the previous jar that was 80% full.
The sky grew darker and darker, and the expressions on the family's faces became more and more solemn.
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